atomic_fungus (atomic_fungus) wrote,
atomic_fungus
atomic_fungus

#5883: Freaking right the hell out

Apparently if North Korea does an open-air hydrogen bomb detonation in the Pacific Ocean, the way they're threatening, it will destroy all life on Earth.Look at the laundry list of catastrophe:
The ocean would be devastated and low-orbiting satellites would cease to function.

Planes would literally fall out of the sky as technology stopped working and huge waves carrying radiation rushed ashore.

Marine life in the immediate area would be killed and thousands of other animals and humans would remain at risk for long periods of time.

Radiation would disperse, flowing into an unknown number of waterways.
That must be some bomb if it can make "technology stop working"! Holy shit.

...of course everything they're saying is here is a gross exaggeration.

"Planes would literally fall out of the sky." So detonating a nuclear bomb shuts down the Bernoulli Effect? How big of an area can we expect this to effect? I mean, how far from ground zero? A hundred miles? A thousand?

"Low-orbiting satellites would cease to function". Why? If the detonation is atmospheric (ie a mile or two above ground level) the blast won't be sufficient to effect "low-orbiting satellites". But if you set the bomb off high enough to effect low-orbiting satellites, its going to be seventy-odd miles up, and it won't have any effect on the ground. What will not happen is for the bomb to go off near the surface, and also generate EMP. It simply does not work that way. You can have "low-orbiting satellites cease to function" or "planes literally fall out of the sky" but not both, not from one warhead's detonation.

"Huge waves carrying radiation!" Setting off an h-bomb, even underwater, does not generate waves that travel a long distance. The radiation generated by a nuclear weapon is localized; the fallout half-lifes to insignificance in about two weeks.

None of this is dangerous to anyone but those in the immediate vicinity of the test.

Evidence: the US and the USSR performed dozens of open-air nuclear bomb tests. People in Las Vegas watched some of those tests. The USSR set off a 51-megaton thermonuclear bomb, the biggest bomb ever detonated. The first hydrogen bomb, the Mike test, yielded about 10 megatons. There weren't any nuclear tsunamis devastating coastal regions then, damn it.

Idiots who don't know a damned thing, opening their pie-holes....

* * *

NFL nonsense, starting here with a linked screed to the effect that the players' "protest" is nothing more than "me-me-me".

Asshat "takes a knee" during the national anthem as it's played at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier which is spectacularly asinine. What a jerkoff.

This almost sounds as if the Raiders intentionally threw a game, doesn't it? Because their offensive line wanted the team to take a knee and their quarterback refused to? That's just the sort of petulant shit I'd expect from rich guys "protesting racism".

This ain't over. That last link shows that one NFL sponsor has pulled its sponsorship; I'd wager more will follow. Ticket purchases are down something like 17% from last week, already. You do the math.

* * *

Last night's ep of Orville was outstanding. Premise is classic, borrowed from Heinlein's Universe which itself was a retread of an old idea: people on a multi-generation starship have forgotten they're on a starship.

I really liked the story.

If this goes on, I think Orville will end up being great fun--just good old-fashioned space opera without all the philosophical bullshit. No idea how long it'll last because of that, though. In my experience, fun SF TV shows of moderate intelligence never seem to last long, mainly because they fail to pay homage to lefty shibboleths.

But I like the fact that Orville can blow up bad guys' spaceships without a ton of moralizing and crap, like "Oh, if only there could be peace between our races"--you know? Guy takes out ship, does a celebratory dance that is interrupted by the commanding officer's stern reminder, you won't see that on Star Trek because we have to be oh-so-remorseful over blowing up someone who's trying to blow you up because otherwise you're just as bad as they are.

Horseshit.

Anyway, loved last night's ep, looking forward to next week's. Good stuff.

* * *

Learned that Amazon is going to make a Ringworld series. $5 says it's shit.
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